A familiar story this season: Padres defeat the Dodgers
SAN DIEGO — For most of this season, the Dodgers have looked close to invincible. Their eight meetings with the San Diego Padres, however, have loomed…
Venice Family Clinic Art Walk, a fight to save L.A. youth orchestras and your guide to L.A. culture this week
Civic Youth Orchestra (Courtesy of Civic Youth Orchestra / Photo by Bill Kraus) Hello and welcome to another week of Essential Arts, where we highlight…
Behind Shari Redstone’s failed comeback story for Paramount
It was supposed to be a blockbuster Hollywood comeback: Shari Redstone, who had long struggled to prove herself, was determined to orchestrate a dramatic turnaround…
Third week of testimony in Trump’s trial draws to a close, with Michael Cohen yet to come
NEW YORK — The third week of testimony in Donald Trump’s hush money trial draws to a close Friday after jurors heard the dramatic, if not…
‘Particle Ink’ in Las Vegas: Animation enters its live-theater era
Las Vegas — There are multiple dance duets in “Particle Ink: House of Shattered Prisms,” a mixed-media theatrical production that debuted last month on the Las…
Stormy Daniels returns to witness stand in Trump trial
NEW YORK — Stormy Daniels returned to the witness stand Thursday in Donald Trump’s hush money trial as the defense sought to undermine the credibility of…
Newsom’s appointees should stop delaying this great climate solution
We’ll have to wait a few more weeks to find out if Gov. Gavin Newsom is willing to push back against utility industry resistance to…
Did Stormy Daniels’ testimony help or hurt the case against Trump?
NEW YORK — When Manhattan Assistant Dist. Atty. Susan Hoffinger announced on Tuesday, the 13th day of Donald Trump’s hush money trial, that “the people call…
The week’s bestselling books, May 12
Hardcover fiction 1. Table for Two by Amor Towles (Viking: $32) A collection of stories from the author of “The Lincoln Highway.” 2. The Women…
‘Mama’ Cass Elliot didn’t choke to death on a ham sandwich
Another music legend has fallen: The mighty good one that the Mamas & the Papas singer Cass Elliot choked to death on a ham sandwich…
Opinion: How many ways can a memoir backfire? Ask Kristi Noem
Not to beat a dead, ah, horse, but how can we ignore the spectacle that South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem has made of herself during…
Here’s what Exxon’s CEO gets wrong about the climate crisis
Oil and gas conglomerate Exxon Mobil could be a key player in global efforts to combat the climate crisis — if only governments would remove…
Strapping in with director George Miller, back with ‘Furiosa’
For as long as he can remember, George Miller has been living large inside his head. “At the time I was young, people used to…
Stars Wars Day, Alice Wang’s extraterrestrial art and more LA culture
Hello and May the 4th be with you! From a cultural galaxy near, near by, the Essential Arts newsletter is back again, corralling the best…
Trump hush money trial: Hulk Hogan, hurricanes, blockbuster recording
WASHINGTON — Crucial witnesses took the stand in the second week of testimony in Donald Trump’s hush money trial, including a California lawyer who negotiated deals…
‘Wildcat’ review: Ethan and Maya Hawke do the O’Connor story
Flannery O’Connor’s thrillingly hard-edged tales about the unreconstructed South and its redemption-deficient malcontents will never lose their power to scratch us awake with their violence,…
Harry Potter at an HBCU? LaDarrion Williams on his YA fantasy book
On the Shelf Blood at the Root By LaDarrion WilliamsLabyrinth Road: 432 pages, $21 If you buy books linked on our site, The Times may…
‘The Phantom Menace’ built the way forward, but it took time
May 19, 1999, in a galaxy not so far away ... Excitement for “Star Wars” is at an all-time high. The first new film in…
How the Trump prosecution is solving its Michael Cohen problem
Since the opening of the Donald Trump’s New York trial — when the former president’s counsel told the jury that the prosecution’s star witness “cannot…
‘The Contestant’ tells the story of a man in a real-life ‘Truman Show’
New York — In January 1998, an aspiring Japanese comedian named Tomoaki Hamatsu but better known as Nasubi — or “eggplant,” because of his long face…